This week’s Cartoon Forum 2024 project preview wraps up today, but if you missed any of our other picks, please check them out here: Ellipse Animation’s Lost in the Future, TeamTO’s H.O.M.E., La Cabane/Thuristar’s A Lamb’s Stew and Something Big/Kavaleer’s Bobby and the Bottle Brigade.

A routine day at school can feel pretty boring and predictable—but what if you could reimagine it as an action-packed battle between ninjas, or a fantasy graphic novel chapter featuring stoic knights. 

French co-production partners Blue Spirit Studios and Brain Comet are returning to Toulouse this year to pitch My Life is a Manga, a new 2D/CG-animated series (52 x 11 minutes) for tweens that stars an avid fan of the Japanese artform who draws anime-themed adventures based on her ordinary days, and then brings them to life with her remarkable imagination. 

In each episode, Liya encounters a new challenge either at school, at home or in her relationships and calls on a different genre of manga to help solve it—such as battling math monsters ninja-style to study for a last-minute quiz, or following her mother around the town as a super-spy.

Series creator and Blue Spirit creative producer Nicolas Monteiro was inspired to develop My Life is a Manga by his lifelong passion for the manga medium. He also spent a lot of time as a kid dreaming up wild adventures (like jumping from building to building, or controlling the waves at the beach) during boring road trips with his family. 

“With the ever-growing global popularity of Japanese animation—both in terms of viewership and manga consumption—it felt natural for us to create our own series,” says Monteiro. “One that embraces the codes of anime while adapting them perfectly to today’s audiovisual markets.”

And as more anime IPs gain traction with audiences in North America and Europe, Monteiro believes his series will be attractive to buyers and licensing partners looking to tap into this sweeping content trend. “This series is accessible to both newcomers and long-time anime fans, thanks to its diverse stories, strong heroine and rich visual style,” he says. “Audiences are hungry for stories that are not only fun and visually stunning, but also empowering. Liya embodies these values, making her a character with wide appeal.”